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- -- 

DR. F. B. MEYER 


in his introduction to 
this volume says: 

THE 

“The events that 


are transpiring around 
us to-day are exactly 
such as the Master’s 

LORD 

Words taught us to 
expect; as preparing 
His pathway; and 
new voices, from un¬ 
expected quarters, are 
crying Ecce Venit; 
amongst which w e 
greet that of 

COMETH! 

CHRISTABEL PANKHURST 


to whom this message 
has been entrusted, 

THE 

and who, turning from 

ALL OTHER METHODS 

of 

WORLD RENEWAL, 

bids us lift up our 
heads and rejoice, be¬ 
cause the Redeemer 
draweth nigh.” 

WORLD CRISIS EXPLAINED 

CHRISTABEL PANKHURST 

Read why Christabel 
Pankhurst turned from 


Politics to Prophecy 


and from 


Social Schemes 
to 


Scriptures. 




































COPYRIGHT, 1923 
THE BOOK STALL 


3l<\ 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING 

Chap. Page 

I. Why He Must Come . 17 

II. How I Learned of His Coming . 21 

III. The Bible’s Power of Prophecy . 27 

IV. Some Prophecies Already Fulfilled .... 31 

V. The Very Great Prophecy . 37 

VI. Messiah Cometh . 43 

VII. Jesus Announces His Return . 47 

VIII. The Future Seen from Mount Olivet .. 53 

PART II 

BETWEEN THE ADVENTS 

Chap. Page 

I. Why the Church Cannot Establish the 
Kingdom .. 65 

II. The Times of the Gentiles. 71 

III. The Jewish Question at the End of the 
Age . 79 

PART III 

BEHOLD HE COMETH 

Chap. Page 

I. Some Signs That the Age Is Ending .. 91 

II. Resurrection and Translation .101 

III. Even So Come Lord Jesus .109 
















FOREWORD. 


T iHE truth of the Lord’s Second Advent is 
held theoretically by all Evangelical 
Christians; but, as that Advent is rele¬ 
gated to some far-away and distant future, it is 
practically inoperant as a factor in the life and 
outlook of the professing Church. 

Far otherwise was it with the Church of the 
Apostolic Age. The Hope of our Lord’s Re¬ 
turn was held with tenacious faith as an im¬ 
mediate prospect. It inspired the martyr in the 
arena, the friends that gathered around the de¬ 
parting Saint, and the little groups that stole 
out with all secrecy to gather around the Table 
of loving memory and anticipation. 

They did not place their hope of world-better¬ 
ment on political or social re-organization; but 
on His Advent, Who said ‘ 4 Behold, I make all 
things new;” and though centuries intervene 
between His spoken promise and the present 
hour, the lapse of time is of no account in those 
eternal estimates, in which a thousand years 
are as one day, and one day as a thousand years. 

We believe, therefore, that God is not slack 
concerning His promise; and that there is no 
reason why the gleam of the Advent may not 
break in on the world, in its present condition 
of unpreparedness. “In such an hour as ye 
think not, the Son of Man cometh. ’ ’ 

The events that are transpiring around us 
to-day are exactly such as the Master’s words 




6 


THE LOKD COMETH! 


taught us to expect; as preparing His pathway; 
and new voices, from unexpected quarters, are 
crying Ecce Venit; amongst which we greet 
that of Christabel Pankhurst, to whom this mes¬ 
sage has been entrusted, and who, turning from 
all other methods of world-renewal, bids us lift 
up our heads and rejoice, because the Redeemer 
draweth nigh. F. B. Meyer. 

London 
April 1923. 


INTRODUCTION 


rp HIS book is addressed to people who have 
hitherto given little or no thought to the 
■ ^ . sublime question with which it deals. 

Its purpose is to draw attention to the 
Biblical prophecies which tell of the future now 
immediately before us. My hope is that readers 
of these pages will make their own study of 
Biblical prophecy in the light of the present 
significant national and international con¬ 
ditions. I would earnestly suggest also that 
they refer to various books dealing with proph¬ 
ecy, that are far more complete than the brief 
introductory sketch here given. 

The publishers of this book will I know glad¬ 
ly supply to enquirers a list of the leading 
treatises on prophecy. 

The Biblical prophecies, it must here be em¬ 
phasised, while they refer both to the beginning 
and the end of the Millennial Age, deal chiefly 
and far more fully with its beginning, and we 
see predicted, with remarkable amplitude and 
detail, the events and conditions preceding and 
accompanying the opening of this approaching 
new Age. 

This fact, that throughout the Old Testament 
and the New, the prophetic strain is devoted 
almost entirely to the beginning of the Millen¬ 
nium, is of the highest importance to us, be¬ 
cause it means that the things foretold are not 
still distant by ten centuries or more, but are 




8 


THE LOKD COMETH! 


imminent and of urgent concern to us at this 
present time. 

There has been in the past a difference of 
opinion among Christians as to whether the 
Lord Jesus Christ would make His promised 
second visible appearance to mankind at the 
beginning or at the end of the Millennium, but 
in the new light cast by the remarkable world 
developments that have arisen since 1914, it is 
now unmistakeably certain that He will come 
to initiate the Millennium. 

Therefore His coming is not removed from 
this day by a thousand years, but will occur be- 
lore the new thousand-year Age begins. 

The Signs of the Times are witnessing irre¬ 
sistibly to the truth that He is coming and soon. 
It is awe-inspiring to watch current history fit¬ 
ting into the very mould of prophecy. 

Once you have the clue to the meaning of the 
existing world crisis, you marvel that every¬ 
body else does not also see how prophecy is ful¬ 
filling itself in the world events of the passing 
days. 

Throughout this book I have ignored de¬ 
structive criticism of the Bible, because that 
criticism is now oldfashioned, superannuated, 
based on an exploded materialism which could 
no longer claim to be scientific, had no founda¬ 
tion in historic fact, was wholly unphilosoph- 
ical, was false to real experience of life. The 


THE LORD COMETH! 9 

originators of destructive criticism, in its dif¬ 
ferent varieties, allowed themselves to be misled 
by imperfect human knowledge, misapplied, in¬ 
stead of relying upon revelation concerning 
truths outside the bounds of human discovery. 

The Bible rings true and never truer than in 
these critical days. It has the note of authority. 
Without its revelation concerning the future 
into which we are even now emerging, human¬ 
ity would be sailing without chart or compass 
into a totally unknown rock-strewn sea. There 
is literally no other guide. All other books deal¬ 
ing with future developments are made up of 
vague, speculative and baseless generalities. 

Some have said that they were not yet sure 
whether they wish for the fulfilment of the 
Bible’s prediction of the Millennium and the 
millennial reign of the Son of God. It has to be 
remembered, however, that all this will come to 
pass irrespective of any human wishes, of any 
human and thus imperfect conception of justice 
and righteousness. 

Among the readers of prophecy and works on 
prophecy there are scoffers and scorners, as one 
knows. Indeed it would be easier to keep one’s 
thought on this subject to oneself. But some¬ 
how, one is constrained to tell other people. Just 
as did the women at the tomb whom the risen 
Jesus bade to go and tell the news, those who 
see the truth as it is in Christ Jesus have been 
telling it out to others ever since. 


10 


THE LORD COMETH! 


This thing is certain; not the most obstinate 
sceptics where prophecy is concerned can read 
even such a simple and short exposition as this, 
without being thereafter inwardly haunted by 
the question: “Can it be true? Suppose it 
were true after all! 

Others who are still unconvinced yet have an 
open mind will certainly search the Scriptures 
for themselves, and by their light read the 
Signs of the Times as they daily increase and 
multiply. In pursuing their researches, they 
will not forget the impressive Scriptural state¬ 
ment that “the wisdom of this world is foolish¬ 
ness with God” and the “things of the Spirit of 
God” are “spiritually discerned.” 

How true that is of questions that are still 
matters of faith which “is the evidence of 
things not seen!” There will come the day 
when visibly “the glory of the Lord shall be re¬ 
vealed for all flesh shall see it together”—when 
4 ‘ every eye shall see Him. 

Christ has been expected before, but did not 
come, you say. That may be, but this time He 
is coming. In any household, when the return of 
a beloved, long-absent traveller is expected, the 
waiting ones rush to the door, perhaps a score 
of times, in the mistaken belief that the travel¬ 
ler has arrived. Yet after all these passing dis¬ 
appointments, the traveller comes at last! So is 
it with the soon returning Jesus, King of Kings 
and Lord of Lords. 


THE LORD COMETH! 


11 


In sending forth this declaration of faith I am 
both joyfully expectant and deeply impressed 
by the solemnity of my theme—the manifesta¬ 
tion of God to humanity, 4 4 the appearing of the 
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” 


t 



PARTI 


Chapter I 

Why He Must Come. 

II 

How I Learned of His Coming 

III 

The Bible’s Power of Prophecy 

IV 

Some Prophecies Already Ful¬ 
filled 

V 

A Very Great Prophecy 

VI 

Messiah Cometh 

VII 

Jesus Announces His Return 

VIII 

The Future Seen From Mount 
Olivet 


PARTI 


THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING 



CHAPTER I 

WHY HE MUST COME. 

“This same Jesus . . . shall . . . come.” Acts 1:11. 


J iESUS is soon coming back, as He prom¬ 
ised. That is the only hope of the world, 
for by no human instrumentality can it be 
cleansed and healed of its terrible ills. 

We men and women have not the goodness 
needed, not the loving-kindness, nor the wis¬ 
dom, nor the power, to regenerate the world. 
It is the task, not of humanity, but of Divinity, 
infinite in wisdom, power and love. 

The testimony of history, of present experi¬ 
ence and of Scriptural prophecy is that the hu¬ 
man instrument has failed, is failing and will 
fail to establish God’s Kingdom upon the earth. 
Prophecy testifies further that only Jesus, the 
Anointed One, the Christ, the Son of God, can 
and will, when He returns as Lord of Lords and 
King of Kings, establish the Kingdom and 
make His Father’s will supreme on earth as it 
is in heaven. 

Some Christian will perhaps interpose a word 
as to the work of the Holy Spirit, but let us 
here recall the fact that Jesus who promised 
that the Holy Spirit should be here in His ab¬ 
sence, also proclaimed that He Himself would 
return visibly, with power and great glory. The 
Holy Spirit indeed came, but Jesus Himself has 
not yet come again, and the establishment of the 




18 


THE LORD COMETH! 


Kingdom awaits His return. The work of the 
Holy Spirit, Jesus clearly defined and it did not 
include the establishment of the Kingdom, for 
that task is reserved for Jesus Himself. 

The coming of Jesus will not mean the end of 
the world, but simply the end of the present 
*Age, or Dispensation, which is to close with a 
season of tribulation and world purification. 
Then will begin the new Dispensation, marked 
by conditions of righteousness, peace and hap¬ 
piness; the Millennial Age, which if it depend¬ 
ed upon ourselves for its coming, would be and 
remain a beautiful mirage, but because it de¬ 
pends upon the Divine promise and power, is 
surer than the rising of the sun. 

That sin, sorrow and warfare have disfigured 
human history up to now, and that “Failure” 
must be written across the page, is admitted. It 
used to be thought that when certain elements 
in the community should get a larger share than 
heretofore in national and international govern¬ 
ment, all would be transformed. But that be¬ 
lief is gone for ever. It is, for instance, impos¬ 
sible to imagine that the working men will put 
the world to rights, seeing that the manual 
workers are of precisely the same flesh and 
blood, of precisely the same nature, with pre- 

*The Authorized Version of the Bible, by an unfortunate 
mistranslation, gives “•world” instead of “Age.” Thus the 
disciples are made to say: “What shall be the sign of Thy 
coming and of the end of the world.” Whereas what they 
really asked was, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming and 
of the end of the Age.” 



THE LORD COMETH! ly 

cisely the same faultiness, as other people. Ob¬ 
viously, they will not succeed where those who 
ruled before them have failed. To realize this 
fact now, is to be spared bitter disappointment 
hereafter. 

Well, then, the women! But we women too 
are human, different in some respects from men, 
but with our full share of human nature and 
human failing. Assuredly our policital enfran¬ 
chisement was a necessary measure of justice, 
whereby we ceased to be politically irrespon¬ 
sible and having now become politically re¬ 
sponsible, we can more easily realise that we are 
wholly unable, just as men are unable, even to 
form, much less to put into effect, a policy that 
will regenerate the world. As time goes on, we 
women shall become increasingly aware of this 
and so shall be brought to ever greater reliance 
upon God and the hope which He holds out to 
the world in Christ Jesus. 

But this re-beginning of the world is far from 
being the sole purpose of Jesus’ second ap¬ 
pearance. 

He is coming again to reveal the power of 
God the Father. He is coming to establish final¬ 
ly the authority of the Bible and to prove it 
actually written at the inspiration of God the 
Holy Spirit. He is coming, bearing still the 
marks of the Cross, to reaffirm His atoning 
death and resurrection. He is coming to vindi¬ 
cate His own Deity and to silence for ever the 


20 


THE LORD COMETH! 


denial that He is God the Son, to whom is given 
all power in heaven and on earth. 


CHAPTER II 

HOW I LEARNED OF HIS COMING 


m % HIS faith that Jesus will soon come again, 
first dawned upon me in 1918, when, the 
__ acute danger of the earlier months of that 
year being over and the allied Armies on the 
way to victory, one could review the experience 
of the war and, in the light of it, envisage the 
future. 

Like so many others, I had lived in an atmos¬ 
phere of illusion, thinking that once certain 
obstacles were removed, especially the disfran¬ 
chisement of women, it would be full steam 
ahead for the ideal social and international 
order. I had even thought that after its tragic 
interruption by the war, the march of progress 
would, if the Allies were victorious, proceed ac¬ 
cording to pre-war programme. But when, in 
1918,1 really faced the facts, I saw that the war 
was not a war to end war—but was, despite our 
coming victory, a beginning of sorrows. 

Considering the issues, the events, and the 
currents and cross-currents of the war and re¬ 
lating it, also, to the history of times past and 
to the way things go and ever have gone, even 
in times of peace, this is what I realised as I 
never had realised it before. It is not laws, nor 
institutions, nor any mere national or interna¬ 
tional machinery, that are at fault, but human 
nature itself. 




22 


THE LOBD COMETH! 


I had a sharp and terrible vision of the fact 
that the same passions, greeds, ambitions, that 
caused past wars, including that of 1914, would 
continue to rend and tear the nations. The lust 
for power, especially for world power, would, I 
saw, be a perpetual curse, world-empire being 
desired and contended for by one claimant after 
another, whether by some class, some nation, or 
some race, and whether led by an individual or 
prompted by a collective will-to-power. 

That a fully victorious Germany would have 
reduced the Allies to the sternest subjection, is 
well known, and this made one realise the awful 
possibility, even in this twentieth century, of a 
ruthless, economic, political, and still worse, 
spiritual domination by a future successful as¬ 
pirant to world power. It was only too clear to 
me that the German thrust for world power, 
though thwarted in the late war, would be re¬ 
sumed, if not by Germany, then by some other. 
The present war would end not in a peace, but 
only a truce, and a troublous one at that. 

Dark, dark was the future as I looked into a 
vista of new warfare, with intervals of strain, 
of stress, of international intrigue, of horrible 
preparations and inventions for slaughter— 
times of so-called peace, that would be hardly 
less terrible, and no less demoralizing than 
actual war. Not to speak of all sorts of ac¬ 
companying economic troubles and social and 
political decadence! Just then, by what seemed 


THE LORD COMETH! 


23 


a chance discovery, in a bookshop, I came 
across writings on Prophecy which pointed out 
that in the Bible there are prophecies foretell¬ 
ing and diagnosing the world’s ills and promis¬ 
ing that they shall be cured. Now until that 
day I had taken the prophecies of the Bible no 
more seriously than a great many other people 
still do take them. I had simply ignored them, 
never thinking that they had any bearing what¬ 
ever upon the world problems of our time. 
But now I eagerly followed up the clue which 
this bookshop discovery had given me. What 
did I read? That God foreknew and has fore¬ 
told in the Bible, the evils of this Age and their 
gathering and darkening as the Age draws to 
its close—above all that He has promised the 
return of Jesus Christ, to Whom He has re¬ 
served the Imperial Sceptre of the world. Thus, 
world-power and rule will cease to be the cause 
of fratricidal human strife, and will be exer¬ 
cised in divine love and wisdom by the Son of 
God. 

4 ‘Ah! that is the solution!” My heart stirred 
to it. My practical political eye saw that this 
Divine Programme is absolutely the only one 
that can solve the international, social, political 
and moral problems of the world. 

The only trouble was that it seemed too good 
to be true. I yet believed not for very joy. The 
mourning disciples could not for joy believe 
thev saw their risen Lord, and I for the same 



24 


THE LORD COMETH! 


cause feared to believe that that same Jesus 
will really come to break the vicious circle of 
history, put an end to human failure and begin 
a new Dispensation. Too good to be true! Too 
good to be true! I can apply to myself the re¬ 
proach earned by the disciples, “0 fools and 
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets 
have spoken concerning Him. ’ ’ 

Then the routine of life and work went on, for 
the war continued, with, the duties it involved. 
Then came the Armistice and after-war prob¬ 
lems at Versailles and in Britain. But the hope 
of the promised return of Jesus as King of 
Kings and Lord of Lords was there as a refuge 
from the concerns and cares of the world. It 
was a hope too often, I am ashamed to say, sub¬ 
merged in the minor concerns of life. How apt 
the warning of Jesus, who said in foretelling 
His return, “Take heed to yourselves lest at 
any time your hearts be overcharged with the 
cares of this life and so that day come upon you 
unawares.” Many times I should have been 
caught unawares had He come at that stage! 

For a long time, too, mine seemed too fragile 
a flower of belief to speak of and expose to the 
cold wind of other people’s possible scepticism. 
I felt that I must go slowly, study more and 
make quite sure, or at any rate become better 
qualified to defend the faith that was in me. I 
more and more left behind the activities and 
preoccupations of the past, travelled, and thus 


THE LORD COMETH! 


25 


could observe from a new vantage point, the 
world events that every day are moving more 
rapidly towards the fulfilment of prophecy. 
Above all, as I studied more profoundly what 
the Bible has to say —then my faith reached all 
its completeness. Thus I write on no hasty im¬ 
pulse, but after steady and prolonged consider¬ 
ation. 

I affirm my conviction that Jesus Christ is 
coming again in accordance with God’s re¬ 
vealed purpose, “to gather together in one all 
things in Christ, both which are in heaven and 
which are on earth, even in Him.” (Ephesians 
1 : 10 .) 

After nineteen hundred years, ‘ ‘ all things on 
earth ’ ’ are still very, very far from being 
“gathered together in Christ”. Millions do not 
own His name. Even in so-called Christendom, 
multitudes reject Him. The world’s ways are 
not according to His will. This Age is largely a 
Christ-defying Age. When Moses “delayed to 
come down out of the mount,” the people de¬ 
manded “other gods”, saying, “as for this 
Moses, we wot not what is become of him.” 
There are many, many who are thinking that of 
the absent Redeemer while He remains still ab¬ 
sent from our sight. 

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye 
see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeak¬ 
able and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, 
even the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8,9. 

Humanity as a whole is not moving to that 


26 


THE LORD COMETH! 


4 ‘Except I shall see—I will not believe/ * said 

doubting Thomas, and he has and will have his 
innumerable successors as long as the Saviour 
remains away. 

“Blessed are they that have not seen and yet 
have believed” said Jesus—but He showed the 
nail prints, all the same. 

The world, like Thomas, will not, until it sees, 
hail Him, as we who know Him by faith alreadv 
hail Him: 

MY LORD AND MY GOD! 

One’s life should surely teach one some out¬ 
standing lesson. The lesson of my own life, of 
my personal experience and of my observation 
of the history of our time is this—our personal 
need of Jesus Christ, the world’s need of Him. 
4 4 For other foundation can no man lay than that 
is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 

The world is in this evil, troubled condition 
because He is still away Who alone can give it 
wise, just and righteous governance. How true 
His Word, true for one and for all, for the in¬ 
dividual and for the nations: “Without me ye 
can do nothing!” 


CHAPTER III 

THE BIBLE’S POWER OF PROPHECY. 


m HE Bible foretells the second coming of 
Jesns and foretells also the world con¬ 
ditions that will precede and will follow 
His coming. But is the Bible able to foretell 
the future? Yes! it is, as has been proved by 
the actual fulfillment in history of all its proph¬ 
ecies up to date. 

The Bible, in claiming to be the Word of God, 
asserts its own miraculous, prophetic quality. 
For instance: 

‘ ‘ Known unto God are all His works from the 
beginning of the world.” Acts 15:18. 

“ Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but 
He revealeth His secret unto His servants the 
prophets.” Amos 3:7. 

“Hath He said and shall He not do it? Or 
hath He spoken and shall He not make it good? 
Numbers 23:19. 

In the Book of Daniel we read that there is a 
God in heaven that revealeth secrets and mak- 
eth known what shall be in the latter days. 

God’s power both to foretell and to fulfil is 
again stated thus: 

“Behold the former things are come to pass 
and new things do I declare: before they spring 
forth I tell you of them.” Isaiah 42:9. 

Another majestic utterance! 

‘ ‘ I am God and there is none like me, declar- 



28 


THE LORD COMETH! 


ing the end from the beginning and from an¬ 
cient times the things that are not yet done, say¬ 
ing: My counsel shall stand, and I will do all 
my pleasure. 77 Isaiah 46:9,10. 

The Divine voice continues: 

“I have spoken and I will also bring it to pass. 
I have purposed it, I also will do it. 7 7 

What is it that God has purposed and will 
do I Listen! “I will bring near my righteous¬ 
ness: it shall not be far off and my salvation 
shall not tarry. 77 

What is the Righteousness and what the Sal¬ 
vation of God? Not the abstract 4 ‘ideals 77 or 
“principles 77 of which we humans talk! God 
does not offer us mere lifeless abstractions. He 
offers a Person. His Salvation is Jesus Christ. 
His Righteousness is Jesus Christ. The great 
promise of God is His Son. “The Spirit of 
prophecy is the testimony of Jesus! 77 says the 
Bible. He is the Central Theme of the whole 
Book from Genesis to Revelation, as any real 
examination of prophecy discloses. 

The Lord Jesus, “beginning at Moses and all 
the prophets expounded unto them in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning Himself 77 , say¬ 
ing, “All things must be fulfilled which were 
written in the law of Moses and in the prophets 
concerning Me. 77 And what is there written 
concerning Him? That He would come to suf¬ 
fer and that He would come to reign! Did the 
one prophecy contradict the other? No! for 


THE LORD COMETH! 


29 


there were to be two Advents; the first which is 
over, and the second which is yet to be. 

At His first coming, those who loved Him 
‘ ‘ beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the 
Father, full of grace and truth,’’—“but the 
world knew Him not”. At His second coming 
there will be no mistake possible. The world 
cannot then do otherwise than know Him, be¬ 
cause: 4 ‘Behold He cometh with clouds and 
every eye shall see Him and they also which 
pierced Him. ’’ 

Then will be verified the Psalmist’s word; 
The heavens declare His righteousness and all 
the people see His glory. 



CHAPTER IV 


SOME PROPHECIES ALREADY 
FULFILLED. 

B iIBLICAL prophecy is simply future his¬ 
tory. Some of the prophecies have already 
become past history. The fact of their 
fulfilment indicates that the remaining proph¬ 
ecies will also be fulfilled in the ripeness of time. 

To illustrate the prophetic power of the 
Bible, let us choose, from the chief prophecies 
already fulfilled, a few outstanding ones among 
the many relating to the birth, death and resur¬ 
rection of the Redeemer. The historic fact of 
Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem was foretold through 
the Prophet Micah in these words—“But thou, 
Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little 
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee 
shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in 
Israel; whose goings forth have been from of 
old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2. There was 
the prophecy of the Incarnation, of the birth 
and where it should occur, together with the 
affirmation of the Divinity of Jesus, who Him¬ 
self, while on earth, declared His own eternal 
Deity by these words; “Before Abraham was, I 
am.” His prayer, before His betrayal and cruci¬ 
fixion: “And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me 
with thine own self with the glory which I had 
with thee before the world was” was exactly 
consistent with Micah’s message: “whose go- 




32 


THE LORD COMETH! 


ings forth have been from of old, from ever¬ 
lasting/’ 

Now, when those wise men came from the 
East, saying, “Where is He that is born King 
of the Jews?” King Herod gathered together 
the chief priests and scribes of the people and 
demanded of them where the Christ, the Mes¬ 
siah, who, as every Jew was aware, would be 
ruler in Israel, was to be born. Whereupon they 
referred to the very passage from Micah, 
quoted above, and replied: “In Bethlehem of 
Judaea, for thus it is written by the prophet.” 

Herod, accordingly, directed the wise men to 
Bethlehem and there they found and wor¬ 
shipped the Babe. 

Cut off out of the land of the living, numbered 
with the transgressors, making His grave with 
the wicked and with the rich man in his death! 
Thus ran the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, so lit¬ 
erally fulfilled in the death of Jesus, who was 
crucified between two thieves, whose body was 
about to be disposed of with theirs, when quite 
unforeseen by His enemies, it was honourably 
tended and placed in the tomb of the wealthy 
Joseph of Arimathaea. The taunts and mock- 
ings He endured on the Cross are faithfully re¬ 
ported beforehand in Psalm 22. 

‘ ‘ All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they 
shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 
He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver 


THE LORD COMETH! 


33 


him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in 
him.” 

Most marvellous of all, we have in Psalm 22 
the crucified One’s own cry predicted 4 4 My God, 
my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” Words 
wrung from the Son who had never till then 
known a break in His communion with the Fa¬ 
ther! In that separation from God was summed 
up the sin and the penalty of sin He bore for us. 

It cannot be said, in face of such prophecies 
as these, that the Bible does not foretell the fu¬ 
ture! 

Jesus Himself plainly foretold His own death 
and the resurrection to follow. 4 ‘With desire 
have I desired to eat this passover with you be¬ 
fore I sutler.This is my body which 

is given for you.This cup is the new 

testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” 
In these poignant words, the fulness of His 
sacrifical agony and love are laid open to us. 
And broken in heart we are ready that our old, 
human nature shall be crucified with Him, so 
that we, being nailed to the Cross with Him and 
becoming one with Him in death, may be one 
with Him in His resurrection. “That like as 
Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we 
also should walk in newness of life. For if we 
have been planted together in the likeness of 
His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His 
resurrection. ’ ’ 

His death and resurrection Jesus announced 



34 


THE LORD COMETH! 


to the disciples in these words, ‘‘Behold, we go 
up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be 
betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the 
scribes, and they shall condemn him to death 
and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, 
and to scourge, and to crucify him; and the 
third day he shall rise again. ” The first time 
Peter heard the prophecy of this tragic death, 
he protested: “Be it far from thee Lord, this 
shall not be unto thee.” But He turned and 
said unto Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan, 
thou art an offence unto me, for thou savourest 
not the things that he of God, but those that be 
of men.” 

David long since had foretold the miraculous 
resurrection of his great Descendant, and Paul 
in his sermon at Antioch pointed to this proph¬ 
ecy and its fulfilment. He reminded his hearers 
that David saith [in Psalm 16] “Thou slialt not 
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” and 
continued, “David after he had served his own 
generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and 
was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption, 
but He, [Jesus] whom God raised again, saw no 
corruption.” Acts 13:35, 36, 37. 

His enemies among the Jews well knew that 
Jesus, as part of His teaching, was prophesy¬ 
ing His own resurrection. That is why, after 
He was dead, the chief priests and Pharisees 
came together unto Pilate, saying: “Sir, we 
remember that that deceiver said while he was 


THE LORD COMETH! 


35 


yet alive, After three days I will rise again. 
Command therefore that the sepulchre be made 
sure until the third day.” Those who to-day 
deny the resurrection, are simply echoing those 
chief priests and Pharisees and making Him 
out to be a deceiver. But there are more things 
in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in 
their philosophy. The cry of victory rings 
out, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and 
behold I am alive for ever more. ’ ’ 


CHAPTER V 

THE VERY GREAT PROPHECY. 


T ^HE sure foundation for belief in the com¬ 
ing of Jesus, the Redeemer-King, and the 
new Age He will initiate is prophecy al¬ 
ready performed. So let us look still longer up¬ 
on this miracle of fulfilled prophecy. Turning 
to Isaiah, chapter 53, we find there that well- 
known but ever more astounding representation 
of Israel’s Messiah—our Jesus—written so far 
before the Incarnation and Crucifixion: “He is 
despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows 
and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were 
our faces from Him. He was despised and we 
esteemed Him not.” A faithful likeness was 
that! 

Although the people thought Him to be 
“stricken, smitten of God and afflicted” be¬ 
cause of His own fault, yet as the prophecy fore¬ 
tells, “He was wounded for our transgressions; 
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastise¬ 
ment of our peace was upon Him and by His 
stripes we are healed.” What a marvellous 
prophecy that is of the redemption of sinful 
men and women, through the atoning death of 
a sinless Redeemer! 

Sin is next defined:— 

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have 
turned every one to his own way. ’’ Sin is turn¬ 
ing away from God’s way to our own way, dis- 




38 


THE LORD COMETH! 


obeying God. Such is the Bible’s persistent 
testimony, echoed and re-echoed through its 
pages. There is a fashion of assuming that it 
is sufficient to be in harmonious relation with 
one’s fellow-creatures, but that is sheer delu¬ 
sion. We must love our neighbour as ourselves 
certainly. But that is only the second of two 
commandments, 4 ‘the first and great command¬ 
ment” being, Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all 
thy soul and with all thy mind. ’ ’ 

Man’s relation to God is the all-transcending 
relation. Since it is the relation of the created 
to his Creator, it must necessarily be one of 
obedience. God is the source of all life, and 
therefore sin, because it is disobedience to God, 
is a turning away from God, breaks the connec¬ 
tion between the created being and the source 
of his life. Death is the consequence. Thus 
it really is true that, “The wages of sin is 
death.” “By sin came death” the Bible teach¬ 
es and that is the only explanation of the essen¬ 
tial cause of death that has ever been adduced. 

God has a merciful way of simplifying His 
code of obedience, of reducing it to some one 
plain test, one simple demand. In that light 
we must view the command given in Eden, ‘ ‘ Of 
the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou 
shalt not eat.” There was God’s command to 
be obeyed, in order that man’s life-procuring 
communion with his God might be maintained. 


THE LORD COMETH! 


39 


Even should you treat the account as symbolic, 
the basic truths are there concerning God in 
relation to man, and man in relation to God; 
concerning sin and righteousness, death and 
life. 

Mysteriously enough, human nature to this 
day has difficulty in believing and does not even 
like to believe that God can and will provide a 
simple, unified test for man’s obedience. Yet 
when, under the Mosaic law, obedience to God 
had manifold requirements, had a complex defi¬ 
nition, it was not found more palatable. 

But since then Jesus Christ has become “the 
end of the law for righteousness to every one 
that believeth.” 

In Him, the beloved Son, God has summed 
up our obedience. He has provided that our 
communion with Himself shall be restored 
through His Son. He has provided that the 
never-ceasing flow of His life from which hu¬ 
manity cut itself off, by turning away, shall in 
full forgiveness flow to us again from Jesus 
Christ. “For as the Father hath life in Him¬ 
self, so hath He given to the Son to have life in 
Himself.” And that everlasting life which is 
in the Son, that very nature of livingness in the 
Son, is given to us on the condition of obedience, 
which is thus defined: “Verily, Verily, I say 
unto you, he that believeth on Me, hath ever¬ 
lasting life.” 

The verdict that mankind is sinful—is not 


40 


THE LOED COMETH! 


agreeable to mankind! It is, nevertheless, a 
true verdict, we must admit, knowing the world 
in general and ourselves in particular. The 
Bible says: 11 There is none righteous, no not 
one .... All have sinned and come short of the 
glory of God.” I cannot plead “Not Guilty” 
to that; can you? 

Gladstone in his book the “Impregnable Rock 
of Holy Scripture”—and he from his great 
political place and responsibility, and his unique 
experience of himself and other people, had 
some qualification to speak—wrote as follows: 

“Our Lord has emphatically said, “They that are whole, 
need not a physician (Matt. 9:12) and this saying goes to 
the root of the whole matter. Is there, or is there not a 
deep disease in the world? Are we as a race whole, or are 
we profoundly sick?” 

Gladstone’s answer was that it is beyond 
question that mankind is “morally diseased.” 

For our disease of sin God offers this cure, 
this great enfranchisement— 

That by faith in Christ Jesus (that is by faith 
in the atoning power of His sacrificial death 
and His shed blood) we shall be set free from 
sin and death and actually be born again, with a 
new and sinless nature and a new and deathless 
life. 

This wonderful transaction of Divine grace, 
this wonderful operation of the Divine creative 
power, was actually foretold in the 53rd Chap¬ 
ter of Isaiah, in these words: 4 4 When thou shalt 
make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see 


THE LORD COMETH 1 


41 


His seed. He shall prolong his days—He shall 
see the travail of His soul and shall be satis¬ 
fied.” 

Yes! as the Saviour looks upon those who, 
being born again by faith in the efficacy of His 
blood, are thus His offspring, born of the trav¬ 
ail of His soul, born through the offering of 
His soul, offered in the only possible way 
through the shedding of His life-blood, He re¬ 
joices, and will through all eternity rejoice. 
4 ‘He shall be satisfied!” 

What a prophecy! What a fulfilment! 





CHAPTER VI 
MESSIAH COMETH 


••The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messias cometh 
which is called Christ: when He is come He will tell me 
all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee 
am He.” John 4:25,26. 

HE Jews knew that Messiah was to come; 
so far, they were perfectly sound. Their 
mistake was not to understand that He 
to come first in lowliness, before coming 
in His exalted power and glory. So, with 
a strange blindness, they knew not Messiah 
when He came, although the Spirit of Christ 
which was in them” (the Prophets) had 4 ‘testi¬ 
fied before hand the sufferings of Christ and the 
glory that should follow. ’’ 

Gentiles have to guard against making the 
same mistake the other way round—the mis¬ 
take of knowing that Jesus, who is Messiah, 
Christ, has come the first time and not knowing, 
and therefore not even hoping, that He is com¬ 
ing again. 

Old Testament prophecies of Messiah in His 
suffering are already converted into history. 
Those which announce His coming with power 
and great glory have still to be fulfilled. Let us 
consider some of them. They shew forth Mes¬ 
siah chiefly as King in Israel, yet they by no 
means leave out of sight His relation to the 
Gentiles. He is to be, as to His humanity, of 
Israel, of the Tribe of Judah, of the kingly 






44 


THE LORD COMETH! 


House of David. “There shall come a star out 
of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel’’ 
said the prophet in Numbers 24:17. He is to be 
a greater Moses in saving and leading His peo¬ 
ple. “The Lord thy God will raise up unto 
thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy 
brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall heark¬ 
en.” Deut. 18:15. The Psalms ring with the 
promise and praise of Messiah’s reign. What 
brilliant flashes of revelation of the Person of 
his greater Descendant appear in David’s 
Psalms! Here is the kingdom conferred and 
its world wide limits defined in Psalm 2. “I 
will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto 
me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten 
thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the 
heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter¬ 
most parts of the earth for thy possession”. 

That the Babe of Bethlehem will veritably 
reign and rule as the Davidic King is shewn in 
this passage from Isaiah 9:6,7. 

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and 
the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name 
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, 
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall 
be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his king¬ 
dom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and 
with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of 
the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:6, 7. 

‘ ‘ Cry out and shout ’ ’ says the prophet, speak¬ 
ing down the centuries to the inhabitants of 
Zion of that still future day, 11 Great is the Holy 
One of Israel in the midst of thee.” 


THE LORD COMETH! 


45 


Messiah here promises to gather together to 
the land His long dispersed and at last re¬ 
deemed people: “For I am the Lord thy God, 

the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. 

Fear not, for I am with thee: I will bring thy 
seed from the east, and gather thee from the 
west: I will say to the north, Give up; and to 
the south, keep not back: bring my sons from 
far, and my daughters from the ends of the 
earth: Isaiah 43: 3, 5, 6, 

Messiah is the hope also of the Gentiles. “He 
shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles” 
He is “a light of the Gentiles.” 

Messiah’s coming to assume the Davidic king- 
ship and take to Himself the governance of 
earth is announced in these terms, “Behold, the 
days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto 
David a righteous Branch, and a King shall 
reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment 

and justice in the earth.and this is 

his name whereby he shall be called, THE 
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 

This righteous King is none other than the 
child of whom it was announced to Mary, His 
mother, “The holy thing which shall be born 
of thee shall be called the Son of God” and also 
that “the Lord God shall give unto Him the 
throne of His [fore] father David and of His 
kingdom there shall be no end.” 




t 




e 


CHAPTER VII. 

JESUS ANNOUNCES HIS RETURN. 


J iESUS gave His life as a pledge that He is 
the Son of God and will visibly return, 
^_J wielding Almighty power. It was actual- 
y His declaration that He would so come, which 
roused His enemies to the climax of their fury 
against Him. 

Recall what happened! The high priest said 
unto Him: I adjure thee by the living God that 
thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son 
of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: 
nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye 
see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of 
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 
Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, 
He hath spoken blasphemy; What think ye? 
They answered and said, He is guilty of death.” 
In this promise, sealed by His blood, the Son of 
God in prophetic vision showed Himself first of 
all in that place at the right hand of God, which 
as foretold in Psalm 110, He was to occupy af¬ 
ter His resurrection and ascension until the 
day for His re-appearance before the eyes of 
humankind. That re-appearing is promised 
and foreshown in the further words, “And com¬ 
ing in the clouds of heaven.” 

“Coming in the clouds” is a statement re¬ 
peatedly made in telling of His return. ‘ 1 They 
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds 






48 


THE LORD COMETH'i 


of heaven with power and great glory,” the 
Saviour Himself had already said in His great 
prophetic discourse on Mount Olivet. 

Long, long before, in Old Testament days, 
Daniel, of whose vitally important prophecy 
more will be said later, had written: “I saw 
in the night visions and behold one like the Son 
of man came with the clouds of heaven.” 

In the last book of the Bible this testimony 
is renewed, “ Behold, He cometh with clouds 
and every eye shall see Him.” Revelation 1:7. 

Pilate’s question to Jesus was: “Art thou 
King of the Jews?” and Jesus answered: Thou 
sayest. Even so! And as King of the Jews did 
Pilate crucify Him, notwithstanding that the 
chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate; “Write 
not, The King of the Jews, but that he said: I 
am King of the Jews.” But Pilate answered; 
“What I have written, I have written.” 

Why did the chief priests rage at the saying 
that Jesus was King of the Jews? Because it 
meant that this same Jesus was that long ex¬ 
pected Davidic King, sent from God, who was 
to restore all and more than all the glories of 
the Kingdom as it had flourished in the days of 
David and of Solomon and moreover was to be 
ruler not only in Israel, but of the whole earth. 

The Jews had imagined they desired the com¬ 
ing of this promised King, but when He actual¬ 
ly appeared, jealousy which is native to the 
unregenerate human heart, and is humanity’s 


THE LORD COMETH! 


49 


besetting sin, surged up in rejection of Him. 
“Thy Kingdom come on earth!” asks the 
Lord’s prayer. But the Kingdom argues a 
King, demands a King. Jesus is that King and 
He will come to set up the Kingdom and to 
make His Father’s will prevail on earth as in 
heaven. 

Nearly two thousand years ago, the Kingdom 
came nigh and the King offered Himself to His 
people. He was rejected and the Kingdom 
which had been nigh, was thenceforth afar off— 
until the King returns, not this second time in 
weakness, acquainted with grief, but in trium¬ 
phant majesty, not to rule simply in Israel, but 
in all the earth. 

The first and second Advents are seen in 
striking contrast in the 17th chapter of St. 
Luke’s Gospel. “And when he was demanded 
of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God 
should come, he answered them and said; The 
Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! 
for, behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst 
of you” (not “within you” as the unfortunate 
translation in the Authorized Version has it, 
producing no sense or consistency.) The Phari¬ 
sees could not (though the Scriptures had fore¬ 
warned them) believe that the Kingdom would 
be offered the first time without any outward 
visible splendour. They could not believe that 
the King (and therefore the Kingdom) was then 


50 


THE LORD COMETH! 


at that very moment actually among them, in 
the midst of them! 

Jesus having told these proud and stubborn 
Pharisees of the points whereon they were mis¬ 
taken as to His first coming, then proceeded to 
show them that at His second coming expecta¬ 
tions such as theirs, will be more than fulfilled, 
because then, “As the lightning, that lighteneth 
out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto 
the other part under heayen; so shall also the 
Son of man be in his day. ’ ’ He spoke then this 
further word as to His presence at that time as 
the King in their midst: “But first must He suf¬ 
fer many things and be rejected of this genera¬ 
tion. ’ ’ 

On the theme of His still future second com¬ 
ing He sounded this further warning note: 

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in 
the days of the Son of man. 

They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were 
given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into 
the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, 
they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they 
builded; 

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained 
fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is 
revealed.” Luke 17:26,27,28,29,30. 

That warning was for a time that is now close 
at hand, close to the day in which you and I are 
living. It is a warning that rings true. It was 
uttered by One who knew Himself then about 
to die as a ransom for many, by “the Lamb of 


THE LORD COMETH! 


51 


God that taketh away the sin of the worlds ’ 
Out of His surpassing love, in the shadow of His 
approaching sacrifice, He spoke of the tribula¬ 
tion and purgings yet to come upon this world 
as the present Age closes. He was soon, by His 
death on the Cross, to make a way of escape 
from the tribulation of which He gave warning, 
a way open to all who trust in Him and do not 
deny His name. To these He has promised: “I 
will keep thee from the hour of trial which shall 
come upon the earth to try them that dwell up¬ 
on the earth.” There are some, who cannot as 
yet receive such sayings. Nevertheless they 
are true and will be proved to be so by the in¬ 
controvertible evidence of coming historical 
events. 





CHAPTER VIII 


THE FUTURE SEEN FROM MOUNT 

OLIVET. 

J r ~ m ESUS in His Divine wisdom did not will 
that the Apostles and humankind in gen- 
^ eral should know that over 1900 years 
were to pass before His promised visible return. 
Only a moment before His ascension the Apos¬ 
tles asked Him, “Lord wilt Thou at this time 
restore the Kingdom to Israel V’ and His an¬ 
swer was; “It is not for you to know the times 
or the seasons which the Father hath put in 
His own power.’ ’ It was for them to know that 
He would return to restore the Kingdom to 
Israel and to be Himself King in Israel and all 
the earth, but it was not for them to know when 
this would be, the reason perhaps being that 
the constant watchfulness which, for our spirit¬ 
ual good, He has enjoined upon them and upon 
us all, would have been impossible to them had 
they positively known that more than 1900 
years lay between His going away and His com¬ 
ing back, to establish the Kingdom and consum¬ 
mate the work of redemption performed on the 
Cross. The Divine purpose is that during His 
absence His followers, “denying ungodliness 
and worldly lusts” shall “live soberly, right¬ 
eously, and godly in this present age, looking 
for that blessed hope and the glorious appear- 




56 


THE LORD COMETH! 


Spirit of God, will realize that Jesus as Messiah 
is about to return, and will travel throughout 
Palestine and the world generally, preaching 
the Gospel of the Kingdom and His coming as 
King. The Gentile sufferers will be those who, 
having resisted conversion in earlier days, will 
have their eyes at last opened, and will seek to 
make up for lost time by witnessing to the faith 
that is in them and declaring that Jesus is com¬ 
ing. 

Their testimony will be resented on religious 
grounds because it will be a dissent from the 
new-old, non-Christian cult then prevailing. It 
will be resented on political grounds because 
the heralding of Jesus as the coming King of 
Kings will be considered a heinous act of lese- 
majeste amounting to condemnation of the then 
existing world regime and treasonable support 
of the world Ruler and Saviour yet to come, in 
preference to the personage at that time in pow¬ 
er. This will be none other than the “man of 
sin” above referred to, who will try to forestall 
and ape and outrival the returning Jesus, King 
of Kings. He and his pretensions will be de¬ 
stroyed “by the brightness of His coming.” 

Of the two Tribulations affecting unbelievers, 
the first was suffered by the Jewish people in 
A.D. 70, when also the first of the two proph¬ 
esied attacks on Jerusalem occurred, the Rom¬ 
ans besieging and destroying the city and the 
Temple, and the survivors of the tragedy being 


THE LORD COMETH! 


57 


driven forth into the outer world. Some people 
have actually argued that the second coming of 
Jesus, “the consolation of Israel,” took place at 
that time. But was He then seen appearing in 
the clouds with power and great glory? Did 
every eye behold Him? Did He then cleanse 
the world of evil? Did He then make wars to 
cease? Did He then bring in that new and 
righteous and blissful world order which the 
Scriptures promise? Absolutely NO to all these 
questions. The troubled history of the world 
since the year 70 A.D. plainly shows that Jesus 
did not then return. The time of His coming 
was not yet ripe, as a reference to prophecy 
shows. The Old Testament foretells and Jesus 
on Olivet confirmed that there is still a future 
Great Tribulation in store for the Jews, of 
whom on the eve of Messiah’s return a large 
number will already be living in Palestine. It 
will be a Palestine recultivated, renewed in 
wealth and civilization, but menaced by outside 
foes*, racially religiously hostile and covetous 
of the advantages, economic and strategic, af¬ 
forded by possession of that land. It will be a 
Palestine, the mass of whose inhabitants have 
not entered into that new peace with God which 
He has announced will mark the Jews’ relation¬ 
ship with Him in the new Dispensation. But 
the coming Tribulation will clearly not be lim- 

* The Jews will, as indicated by the prophecies, think to 
guarantee themselves against all hostility, by a covenant with 
the aforementioned pretender to world power, who will, how¬ 
ever, eventually cast aside this covenant. 



58 


THE LORD COMETH! 


ited to Palestine and to the Jews—it will be 
general in its extent. The warning signs are 
growing in number and in intensity—“On the 
earth distress of nations and perplexity.’’ We 
see that already and the distress and perplexity 
are increasing and will increase. 

What is the lesson of it all? Not that we can 
avert these great world happenings! They are 
what the Bible terms “the things that must 
be.” 

They must be, because the world, the flesh 

and the Devil will have it so. Just as Pharaoh 

/ 

hardened his heart, so the modern world hard¬ 
ens its heart more and more against God and 
against His Anointed One. If Jesus to-day, as 
before, were to come gently amongst mankind 
and offer to heal the woe and purge out the 
wrong that are afflicting and degrading the 
world, He would be again rejected. For there 
is not sufficient readiness to obey God, although 
obedience really means, would people but see 
it, to accept the supreme honour of cooperating 
with God. Can it be that if the secrets of all 
hearts were known, there is, in some quarters, 
more opposition to Jesus, than ignorance of 
Him; that there is more jealousy of His Deity, 
than disbelief in it! “Behold, I stand at the 
door and knock”, so the infinitely loving voice 
of the Saviour is saying. “To-day if ye hear 
His voice, harden not your heart.” For con¬ 
sider that other word: “And the Lord said: My 


THE LORD COMETH! 


59 


Spirit shall not always strive with man.” That 
is to say, God’s Kingdom on earth cannot be 
delayed for ever, as a continuance of the exist¬ 
ing wide-spread revolt active and passive 
against the Divine will would delay it. The 
world to-day, as was said of the ante-diluvian 
time, is “ corrupt before God and full of vio¬ 
lence.” Hence the need of the cleansing tribu¬ 
lation that is drawing near, as the alternative 
to our acceptance of the better way—the way 
of faith in the atoning and cleansing blood of 
Jesus Christ. 




Part II 


Chapter I Why the Church Cannot Es¬ 
tablish the Kingdom 

II The Times of the Gentiles 

III The Jewish Question at the 
End of the Age 





PART II 


BETWEEN THE ADVENTS 


CHAPTER I 


WHY THE CHURCH CANNOT ESTABLISH 

THE KINGDOM 

I |N the nigh two thousand years absence of 
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, 
J certain mighty concurrent chapters of 
history, divine and human, have had, in accord¬ 
ance with the plan revealed to us, to move to 
their close. Hence the delay in the fulfilment 
of God’s purpose thus defined in the Bible— 

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He 
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both 
which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in 
Him.” Ephesians 1:10. 

In the fulness of times those concurrent chap¬ 
ters will be closed. Then, all things heavenly 
and earthly being under the sway of our Re¬ 
deemer, His millennial reign will begin. 

By human reckoning, these nineteen-hundred 
odd centuries are an extremely long period of 
time, but not so in God’s eyes: as says the 
Psalmist, “a thousand years in Thy sight are 
but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch 
in the night.” What mighty developments 
have to be completed in this period between the 
Advents! The Times of the Gentiles have to 
proceed to their close. Israel, God’s earthly 
people, have to come to the end of their national 
chastisement and casting away and to reach the 
point of restoration to favour and to service. 





66 


THE LORD COMETH! 


Above all, these centuries of waiting, are the 
Age of Grace, in which God is calling out a peo¬ 
ple for His name.—Those who answer this call 
constitute the Church as God sees it. It is sim¬ 
ply those who have been born again, by faith in 
Jesus Christ, as explained in these passages.— 

“This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom 
He hath sent.” John 6:29. 

“Verily, Verily; I say unto you, He that believeth on Me 
hath everlasting life.” John 6:47. 

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” 

2 Corinthians 5:21. 

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Je¬ 
sus.” . 

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither bond 
nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all 
one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:26,28. 

Viewed thus, as the whole company of be¬ 
lievers and without reference to any other con¬ 
sideration, than that of simple faith in Jesus 
as the Redeemer, the dispenser of new and eter¬ 
nal life, the Church is really a new humanity 
having as its head the Son of God. 

The Church, in the absence of the Head, can 
never, as some have hoped, set up God’s King¬ 
dom upon earth. The King must return before 
the Kingdom can be established. Jesus, before 
He went from the Apostles, commanded them; 
that after the Holy Spirit should come upon 
them, they should be witnesses unto Him to the 
uttermost parts of the earth. He did not tell 
them even to try to set up the Kingdom. That, 
He had promised to do Himself on His return. 
They were simply to witness to Him, which 



THE LORD COMETH! 


67 


really means, to recruit for Him a company of 
people, reborn by faith in His blood shed at the 
Cross—who cannot set up the kingdom in His 
stead and in His absence, but will cooperate 
with Him, in His Kingly Task, when the time 
for Him to return arrives. 

For just as Israel, the chosen earthly people, 
of whom, concerning the flesh, Christ came, have 
a great part reserved for them when the King¬ 
dom shall be established, so His spiritual kins¬ 
folk, the believers, who in this Age, compose 
the true Church and by their rebirth partake of 
His life and nature, will have a still greater 
part. For at His second coming, the King of 
Kings will not be lonely as last time, but will 
be royally companioned by His Spiritual kin¬ 
dred, reborn through faith in Him. 

Let us say it again, the Church cannot set up 
the Kingdom while the world’s King, and her 
Lord, is away. The reason of that is to be found 
in the truth thus stated by St. Paul: 

“Ourselves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, 
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the 
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Romans 
8:23. 

Add to this his further words on this subject: 

“From whence (heaven) also we look for the Saviour, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that 
it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, accord¬ 
ing to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all 
things unto Himself.” Philippians 3:20, 21. 

By these words, St. Paul meant that even 
those who are born again by faith in the Sa- 


68 • THE LORD COMETH! 

viour, are still hampered by the old nature, from 
which perfect emancipation cannot be had so 
long as the Saviour remains away. That is 
precisely the reason why the Church, consisting 
of these same people, can never, while He is ab¬ 
sent, establish the Kingdom. It is also the 
reason why human faults and dissensions and 
infidelity have marred the record of the Church. 
When we consider, too, that multitudes are not 
even in the Church at all, the total impossibility 
of the Church establishing the Kingdom is even 
more apparent. 

Shall we here dispose of that other fallacy, 
that our Lord’s promised second coming is to 
individuals “at their death” or “at some time 
in their lives.” It is absolutely clear from the 
Bible, that those who will, as He said, see Him 
when He comes, will be alive and on earth, not 
dead. 

A strange thing indeed if the Prince of Life 
could make His second Advent only by the help 
of death, the great enemy, as the Christian 
knows it to be! 

As to His coming to the individual, certainly 
He does, but that fact is perfectly consistent 
with His promised visible return as King of 
Kings and Lord of Lords. “Lo I am with you 
always, even unto the end of the Age”, for 
“Age” not “world” is the correct translation 
here, was the Lord’s departing message to His 
own. He is with them, unseen, through the 


THE LORD COMETH! 


69 


Spirit, until the close of the Age—Then His 
coming. Seen He went: Seen He will return! 
That is the unambiguous Scriptural statement. 

“While they beheld, He was taken up and a cloud re¬ 
ceived Him out of their sight.” Acts 1:9. 

“And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as He 
went up, behold, two men stood by them in white ap¬ 
parel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye 
gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up 
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as 
ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10,11. 

This is what I for one, am waiting for with 
unwavering conviction that it will come to pass. 

Till He come! “For as often as ye eat this 
bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lord’s 
death till He come.” 1 Cor. 11:26. Not “till you 
die”! Not “till He come into your heart” for 
He is already in the heart of those who eat that 
bread and drink that cup! Not till you go! Sim¬ 
ply “till He come,” as come He will! 








CHAPTER II 

THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES 


“And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles 
until the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And then 
shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with 
power and great glory.” Luke 21:24,27. 

T *"” HE Times of the Gentiles: What are they? 
Jerusalem, the City of the great coming 
King, will not be finally liberated; the Son 
of man, who is that King, will not appear until 
the Times of the Gentiles are complete. So said 
Jesus, the Son of man. And He is chief of 
prophets and historians, because Himself the 
maker of history, being that One whom God 
“hath appointed heir of all things, by whom 
also He made the ages; who being the bright¬ 
ness of God’s glory and the express image of 
His person, and upholding all things by the 
word of His power, when he had by Himself 
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of 
the Majesty on high”—“Whom the heavens 
must receive until the times of the restitution of 
all things which God hath spoken by the mouth 
of all His holy prophets since the world began. ’ 9 
Acts 3:21. 

So when this same Jesus foreindicated the 
end of the Times of the Gentiles as the season 
of His return in royal and Divine splendour, He 
spoke with authority. What He meant by the 
Times of the Gentiles, it is imperative for every 
statesman, for every citizen to know. Because 




72 


THE LORD COMETH! 


the term illuminates all history down to this 
very day. Unless we realise that we are living 
in and near the end of the Times of the Gentiles, 
we are necessarily in the dark regarding every 
national and international problem and in com¬ 
plete ignorance as to the future of the world. 

In His Olivet discourse, Jesus took for grant¬ 
ed that His hearers would understand the ex¬ 
pression “the Times of the Gentiles’’ and so 
they did, because they knew the prophetic writ¬ 
ings of him whom Jesus in this same Olivet dis¬ 
course referred to as “Daniel the prophet”. 
Daniel has told us about the Times of the Gen¬ 
tiles. Yes! Daniel, the prophet. I well know 
that critics have tried to discredit Daniel, but 
as his prophetic claim has been authenticated 
by the Son of God, and as his prophecies, 
through the centuries have been steadily turn¬ 
ing into history, I consider these mistaken 
critical contentions unworthy the waste of one 
drop of ink in reply. Daniel comes as scatheless 
from, what Sir Robert Anderson, the eminent 
exponent of prophecy, called the “critics’ den” 
as he came from the lions’ den. 

The Times of the Gentiles began with Nebu¬ 
chadnezzar’s attacks upon Jerusalem, culminat¬ 
ing in his capture of the city and final over¬ 
throw of the kingdom of Judah—and will last 
until the visible reappearing of Jesus to deliver 
Jerusalem from an attack, which will be then in 
progress, to restore the Davidic Kingdom and 


THE LORD COMETH! 


73 


to establish His mighty, beneficent rule over all 
the earth. 

Daniel, as a boy, saw the Times of the Gen¬ 
tiles begin. He was himself made captive and 
taken to live at the Babylonian Court. Early 
in David’s long sojourn there, Nebuchadnezzar 
had that dream! It was no ordinary dream. It 
was indeed, one of the mightiest revelations 
ever vouchsafed to man. The mark it left upon 
the King’s soul was so deep that, though when 
he woke, he had forgotten what the dream told 
him, he could not rest until he should know 
what this was and what its significance might 
be. He challenged his astrologers and occultists 
to tell him, but they could not. 

Daniel, the young Hebrew captive, hearing of 
the trouble, realised that a divine revelation 
was concerned. He and his three young com¬ 
panions, prayed for ‘‘mercies concerning this 
secret” and “then was the secret revealed in a 
night vision”. After giving thanks to God, 
Daniel sought an audience of the King. 

He was admitted to Nebuchadnezzar’s pres¬ 
ence. Before relating his vision, he affirmed: 
“There is a God in heaven that revealeth se¬ 
crets and maketh known to the King Nebuchad¬ 
nezzar what shall be in the latter days.” Then 
the vision was told:— 

“Thou, O King, sawest and beheld a great image .... 

. . . This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and 
his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his 
legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.” 


74 


THE LORD COMETH! 


Now, what was it that happened in this vision 
given first to the King and then to Daniel? This! 

“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the 
gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff 
of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them 
away, that no place was found for them: and the stone 
that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled 
the whole earth.” Daniel 2:35. 

But what did all that mean? It meant the 
pre-written history of over two thousand, five 
hundred years. 

Here is Daniel’s interpretation of the 
dream:— 

“Thou, O King, art a King of Kings: for the God of heav¬ 
en hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and 
glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the 
beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He 
given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over 
them all. Thou art this head of gold.” 

This image in fact represented a succession 
of great Empires which have in their day wield¬ 
ed supreme power in the known, civilised world. 
The gold head represented Nebuchadnezzar’s 
own Empire. The silver and the brass portions 
of the image, as history has since shown, repre¬ 
sented the Empires of Media-Persia and of 
Greece. ‘‘The fourth kingdom shall be strong 
as iron ’ ’ said Daniel, ‘ ‘ forasmuch as iron break- 
eth in pieces and subdueth all things. ’ ’ A good 
characterisation of Rome certainly! Then to 
correspond with the Eastern and Western di¬ 
visions of the Roman Empire, there were the 
two legs of the image, and as to the toes, these 
stand for the nations into which the Roman 


THE LORD COMETH! 


75 


earth was to be found divided at the close of the 
Times of the Gentiles. For these nations are the 
modem heirs of ancient Rome. They represent 
the succession and continuity, despite change, 
of Rome. Prophecy indicates that the Roman 
Empire of old is yet to revive in more distinct 
and coherent shape than at present, through a 
confederacy, which shall have at its head a lead¬ 
er, president, emperor, call him what you will, a 
sinister figure, who for a brief space of time 
shall wield that predominant world power that 
has even been the goal of super-ambitious men. 
Several prophecies in the Bible concur in wit¬ 
ness to the rise and to the short, but drastic and 
evil rule of this personage. 

The international events of modern times and 
especially the changes following upon the 1914- 
1918 war, have done wonders in retracing upon 
the map the lines of ancient Rome, and in sort¬ 
ing out and separating the peoples and territor¬ 
ies which did come within the Roman boundary, 
from the peoples and territories which did not 
come within it. 

According to the vision, a Stone destroys this 
image of Gentile world power, which vanishes 
completely. What can that mean ? It means, as 
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, and as the record 
of his words tells us, that the “ Times of the 
Gentiles will end and their worldrule will dis- 


76 


THE LORD COMETH! 


appear for ever, and that God’s kingdom will 
take its place! 

Daniel’s words are these:— 

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven 
set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and 
the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall 
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it 
shall stand for ever.” Daniel 2:44. 

Who is the Stone? The Stone is Jesus Christ, 
earth’s rightful King, once crucified, then 
crowned. 

“Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of 
the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces 
the iron, the brass, the elay, the silver and the gold; the 
great God hath made known to the King what shall come 
to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the in¬ 
terpretation thereof sure.” 

No wonder that Nebuchadnezzar 4 ‘ made Dan¬ 
iel a great man and made him ruler over the 
whole province of Babylon.” A man so in¬ 
spired with that unique foreknowledge of the 
future, would be invaluable in any country. 

The rulers and statesmen of this present time 
have, however, far more to gain from Daniel’s 
prophetic wisdom than had the King of Baby¬ 
lon, because they are living when the supreme 
event which the prophet foresaw, is near at 
hand. 

Daniel had a series of visions revealing what 
is to happen when the Times of the Gentiles 
finally run out and the present Age closes. In 
one of these visions, he saw those four Gentile 
world Empires represented all over again, not 


THE LORD COMETH! 


77 


as a composite image, but as four wild beasts 
rising up one after the other. (Beasts and birds 
of prey are favourite emblems of the nations 
themselves!) The fourth and last wild beast, 
had ten horns, among which afterwards sprout¬ 
ed an eleventh little horn, which subdued three 
of the others. It had the eyes of a man and a 
mouth speaking very great things and looked 
more stout than its fellows. In his vision Dan¬ 
iel saw one stand by who told him that the 
horns were ten kings that should arise and an 
eleventh king after them, who should for a 
short time hold power over the nations—that 
same sinister being above referred to and to be 
spoken of more fully in a later chapter. But 
that was not the whole of the vision, whose 
grandeur consists in its picture of that same set¬ 
ting up of the Divine regime in place of any and 
every human regime. 

“I beheld till the [human] thrones were cast down and 

the Ancient of days did sit.And behold, 

one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, 
and came to the Ancient of days .... And there was 
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all 
people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his 
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass 
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” 
Daniel 7:9,13,14. 

May the day soon come! 





CHAPTER III 


THE JEWISH QUESTION AT THE END OF 

THE AGE. 

NLY in the revealing light of Biblical 
prophecy do world problems find their ex¬ 
planation and their final and ideal solu¬ 
tion. 

The Jewish question has, throughout the 
Times of the Gentiles, been a grave problem for 
Gentiles and Jews alike. It still is! 

The Gentiles are perplexed by, and they are 
apprehensive of, that unknown quantity, the 
Jewish people and of their, humanly speaking, 
unknowable influence upon the course of civili¬ 
sation. 

The Jews, on the other hand, complain that 
their advances in power and importance call 
forth among the Gentiles an answering anti- 
Semitism, cruder in some lands, more subtle in 
others. 

Neither Gentile nor Jew can understand the 
Jewish question, unless they accept the guid¬ 
ance of the Old and New Testaments taken as a 
whole. There they both can learn a larger tol¬ 
erance, a kindlier patience, and can find a joint 
salvation, while they are waiting until ‘‘the 
times of refreshing shall come from the pres¬ 
ence of the Lord. * * Acts 3:19. 

The Old Testament informs the Jew that Mes- 






80 


THE LORD COMETH! 


siak is a light for the Gentiles; that in Him all 
the families of the earth are to be blessed. 

More than this, the Divine voice is heard 
prophetically declaring “I am sought of them 
that asked not for me. I am found of them that 
sought me not. I said, Behold me, behold me, 
unto a nation that was not called by my name.’ ’ 
Isaiah 65:1. But in the New Testament the 
Gentiles are expressly warned against high¬ 
mindedness on that account. 

“Boast not against the branches.Thou wilt 

say then: The branches were broken off that I might be 
graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken 
off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded but 
fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take 
heed lest He spare not thee. Behold, therefore the good¬ 
ness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity, 
but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His good¬ 
ness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” Romans 11: 
18 - 22 . 

This sends us back again to the Old Testa¬ 
ment, to the farewell message of Moses, in 
which he conveyed to his brethren the Divine 
warning of judgments that would come upon 
them if they revolted against God, instead of 
the permanent tenure of the Promised Land 
and the very great blessings to be enjoyed there, 
as the fruit of obedience to God. The judg¬ 
ments were to culminate in this manner:— 

The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt 
set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy 
fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other 
gods, wood and stone. 

And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and 
a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead 
thee. 



THE LORD COMETH! 


81 


And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from 
the one end of the earth even unto the other.” Deut. 28: 
36, 37 and 64. 

All this was announced by God through Mos¬ 
es before even the people had entered that 
Promised Land, from which, in judgment, they 
were later expelled. A miraculous prophecy, 
literally fulfilled, first in the Babylonian captiv¬ 
ity and finally in the dispersion among the na¬ 
tions that followed the Jews’ rejection of Jesus, 
Messiah, which dispersion has lasted to the 
present day. But it is not to last for ever. Mos¬ 
es was further commissioned to announce a 
great final regathering and restoration to the 
Promised Land and to God’s favour for which 
the time is evidently now drawing near. This 
is the promise conveyed by Moses: 

“The Lord thy God 'will turn thy captivity and have com¬ 
passion upon thee and will return and gather thee from 
all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered 
thee.” Deut. 30:3. 

So, after chastisement, will come forgiveness 
and great blessing for this people whose whole 
history, whose rise to greatness, whose stern 
punishment, whose strange preservation as a 
separate people, amid long and terrible vicis¬ 
situdes, would, had we not the Biblical revela¬ 
tion to explain it, be a profound, insoluble 
mystery. 

While they for more than two and a half 
thousand years have been cast out, chastised, 
what has been happening, according to the Bib- 


82 


THE LORD COMETH! 


lical programme? Something of vast import¬ 
ance, as we might know, for God never wastes 
time. 

To the New Testament again! There we learn 
that through the fall and casting out for a time 
of the Jew—salvation is come unto the Gentile. 
In face of that heart-searching truth, anti-Semi¬ 
tism shrinks away ashamed. Who are we Gen¬ 
tiles, what have we done, have we been so 
universally true to the Light that came into 
the world, that we should boast? Read the 
whole eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the 
Romans, noting especially these words— 

“Hath God cast away His people? God forbid .... 
Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid, 
but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the 
Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. 

Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and 
the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how 
much more their fulness? 

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the 
world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from 
the dead? 

Still more explicit is this other great pas¬ 
sage: 

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of 
this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; 
that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the ful¬ 
ness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall 
be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion 
the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from 
Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall 
take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are 
enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they 
are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.” Romans 11:25-28. 


The fulness of the Gentiles will come when 


THE LORD COMETH! 


83 


God shall have completed the work of taking 
out from among them a people for His name; 
that is to say, the Church. It is a term of pure¬ 
ly spiritual import, whereas that other term, 
the Times of the Gentiles, has reference to the 
world authority, which was conferred by God, 
for a limited, though lengthy period, upon the 
Gentiles. The Gentiles, as did their Israelite 
predecessors, have failed, not primarily in their 
management of human relations, though they 
have failed badly enough there, but in their re¬ 
lation with God. Jesus prophetically summed 
up this truth when He said of the world, as it 
will be at His return— When the Son of man 
cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? 

The Jews rejected Messiah their King, say¬ 
ing, 44 We have no King but Caesar”. They 
would not have that Man to reign over them! 

But Jesus has foreshewn in parable that on 
the eve of His return, a large part of humanity, 
without distinction of race, will be ready to 
repeat the offence of rejecting Him. He spake 
a parable on His way to Jerusalem to offer Him¬ 
self as King, because those who accompanied 
Him thought that the 44 kingdom of God should 
immediately appear” and He wished to sweeten 
the bitterness of hope deferred. He wished also 
to help them to understand that the reason why 
His kingdom was postponed, was that He must 
go to God to receive from God, the Kingdom 
which His kindred, by His human descent, 


84 


THE LORD COMETH 1 


would refuse Him. It was needful, too, to in¬ 
struct His followers in their duty during His 
absence, and to forewarn and so forearm all 
Christians against the infidelity and scepticism 
of the days preceding His return. So He said: 
‘ i A certain nobleman went into a far country to 
receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 
And he called his ten servants and said unto 
them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated 
him and sent a message after him, saying, we 
will not have this man to reign over us.” 

There is a question I would ask those people 
who, in spite of His own promise, and in spite 
of the signs of these times, still deny that the 
Son of man will return with power and great 
glory to establish His Kingdom upon the earth. 
The question is this, ‘ 4 Do you want this Man to 
reign over the world which humanity rules so 
ill? If you do not, there is no more to be said. 
If you do want Him to reign, then begin to 
search the Scriptures which testify of Him. 
Pray for understanding, for the wisdom of God 
which makes foolish the poor wisdom of this 
world. 

The Deliverer will surely come out of Zion. 

Surely will He turn away ungodliness from 
Jacob. 

The Jews then will cease to be a perplexity, 
a problem to themselves and to the world. They 
will no longer be an object of disapproval, some¬ 
times deserved, sometimes undeserved. For 


THE LORD COMETH! 


85 


then will be accomplished their spiritual regen¬ 
eration, promised in these words: 

“For I will take yon from among the nations, and gather 
you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your 
own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and 
ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all 
your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I 
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I 
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I 
will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit 

within you.. .” Ezekiel 36: 

24-27. 

When and how will this miracle affecting a 
people be accomplished? It will be after their 
return in large numbers to Palestine and at the 
end of that time of trouble which was foretold 
on Olivet by Messiah Himself. Mention is made 
of this climax of affliction in the 30th Chapter 
of Jeremiah. 41 There shall be a time of trouble” 
said Daniel too, such as never was since there 
was a nation.” At the visible appearing of 
Jesus, Messiah, the promised new heart and new 
spirit will be given to His earthly people. 

‘ ‘For the Jews demand a sign”—so were they 
charactised by Paul, and the required sign 
they will receive when they shall see Him both 
crowned and crucified, that is to say, bearing 
the visible marks of the Cross. As foretold 
through the prophet Zechariah, “They shall 
look upon me whom they have pierced.” Then, 
as the prophet also foretells, there will be 
poured upon the House of David and upon the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and 
of supplications.“In that day there 




86 


THE LORD COMETH! 


shall be a fountain opened to the House of Dav¬ 
id and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin 
and for uncleanness.” 

So here we have yet another reason why Jes¬ 
us must and will visibly return—that the lost 
sheep of the House of Israel may behold their 
Shepherd. 

Yes! the chosen, earthly people have un¬ 
doubtedly a high calling for the coming Millen¬ 
nial Age. 

Yet, remember, there is an even higher call¬ 
ing for the spiritual people of God, to which all, 
whether Gentile or Jew, can belong on the sim¬ 
ple condition of faith in Jesus Christ—where¬ 
upon all distinction between Jew and Gentile 
disappears. 

“For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath 
broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 
having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of 
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in 
himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and 
came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and 
to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have 
access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Ephesians 2:14-18. 

The glory of the destiny of this people, born 
again in Christ Jesus, may be measured by the 
fact that, as the Bible declares, “in the Ages to 
come” God purposes to show “the exceeding 
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us 
through Christ Jesus.” 


Part III 


Chapter I Some Signs that the Age is 

Ending 

II Resurrection and Translation 
III Even so come Lord Jesus 




PART in 


“BEHOLD, HE COMETH 



CHAPTER I 

SOME SIGNS THAT THE AGE IS ENDING 


“And there shall be signs.And then 

shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with 

power and great glory.And when these things 

begin to come to pass .... know ye that the King¬ 
dom of God is nigh at hand.” 


E can discern the face of the sky, bnt 
can ye not discern the signs of the 
times ?” said Jesns to the Pharisees 
and Sadducees who “came and, tempting, de¬ 
sired Him that He should show them a sign 
from heaven.’’ 



Let us in these solemn days, avoid their pre¬ 
tentious scepticism and their spiritual blind¬ 
ness. Let us reverently discern the signs of the 
times, inquiring and searching diligently wheth¬ 
er they are the prophesied indications of the 
end of the Age, and the coming of the Son of 
Man. 


Objection is made sometimes that the end of 
the Age and the coming of Christ has, on vari¬ 
ous occasions, in the past, been foretold to hap¬ 
pen on a particular day, so that some people 
wound up their affairs and were waiting on 
that day, and He did not come. Such people 
were not level-headed and careful students of 
prophecy, though their zeal for their Lord’s 
coming will doubtless be preferred to the atti¬ 
tude of those who have entirely disregarded 





92 


THE LORD COMETH! 


the injunction: 4 ‘Watch therefore, for ye know 
not on what day your Lord cometh.” (It. V.) 

The learned writers on prophecy who have 
helped so many of us to our present supreme 
interest in prophecy as found in the Bible, have 
never tried to fix the precise day and hour of 
their Lord’s return. Many of them, indeed, 
have been opposed to every sort of date-fixing, 
considering that to be beyond man’s province, 
and that we must rely solely upon the signs 
which the Master Himself indicated would show 
His coming to be near. Others affirm that the 
prophetic chronology of the Bible, though diffi¬ 
cult for us to understand, is vet meant to be 
understood and they have, as they believe, dis¬ 
covered by its means a season of years within 
which the Age will end and the King of Kings 
appear. But although the works of several of 
these writers, date from before the Twentieth 
Century, they did not expect the end of the Age 
and the coming of the Lord, to occur until some 
time in the first half of this Century. At the 
present day all exponents of prophecy, be it 
noticed, whether they trust to chronology, or 
only to the signs of the times, are united in 
believing that the return of our Lord is now 
very near. 

We must all try to discern the signs of the 
times for ourselves. The question is whether 
the present is, or is not, a day of disappearing 


93 


THE LOED COMETH! 

landmarks, of the continuous, rapid destruction 
of things as they used to be? 

Very many people are saying that it is, in¬ 
cluding some people who are totally unin¬ 
fluenced by Biblical teachings and are guided 
entirely by their own observation and interpre¬ 
tation of events. 

Decidedly the old order changeth, but it giv- 
eth place to no new order of human making. 

Were it not that God has decreed otherwise, 
there would be a new disorder, but not a lasting 
human-made new order, and that for the old, 
old reason that our human nature, having the 
disease of sin, cannot give rise to any social 
order that is not sin-tainted and so foredoomed 
to decay. 

The signs that are now heralding the end of 
the Age are many. Among them is the reawak¬ 
ening of the Bible lands. They undoubtedly 
include the recent ejection of the Turk from 
Palestine and the Zionist plan, already in active 
operation, for the return of the Jews to the 
Promised Land. 

These returning Jews are the forerunners of 
that great host which is to be re gathered there 
from all the lands wherein they are now dis¬ 
persed. The immediate occasion of that larger 
regathering, who can tell! Perhaps it will be 
war or the rumour of war, causing the Jews to 
claim to return to Palestine, on the plea of 
avoiding compulsion to fight fratricidally, Jew 


94 


THE LORD COMETH! 


against Jew, in the respective armies of bellig¬ 
erent nations. Or else that same Zionist fer¬ 
vour, that has already seized the few, may 
seize the many and urge them to their ancient 
homeland. All we know is that whatever the 
Bible says will happen, always and infallibly 
does happen, when the time is ripe. 

Another sign, as already stated in an earlier 
chapter, is the reappearance on the map of the 
lines of ancient Rome, betokening the expected 
renascence of the Roman Empire in modern 
form. 

Wars and rumours of wars were foreshown 
by our coming Lord of Lords Himself to be 
incident to the closing years of this Age. The 
greatest war yet known to history, we recently 
experienced and rumours of wars still deadlier, 
are filling the air to-day. 

Current international events are assuredly 
finger posts to Armageddon, the last great con¬ 
flict before Jesus, the Prince of Peace, banishes 
war from the earth. 

The social, moral and religious signs of the 
Age-end are given in the Second Epistle to 
Timothy, to which I refer you. 

Some of these signs there given, are already 
present, if only incipiently. Conditions develop 
with strange rapidity now-a-days, and so will 
these particular signs, which amount really to 
paganism in practice. 

Very significant is a tendency, observable in 


THE LOED COMETH! 


95 


part of the religious field, to ignore and finally 
to deny the deity of Jesus Christ; to aim at some 
conglomerate religion which shall include eve¬ 
rything, and leave out nothing, except Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified, Him risen from the 
dead, Him ascended to the Father, Him seated 
at the Father’s right hand and Him returning 
thence, as He promised, in visible majesty. 

This decline of faith in Him is one of the 

• 

surest signs of His return. As He said in His 
foreview of the things that are to precede His 
coming, “The love of many shall wax cold”. 

The abomination of desolation, or the abom¬ 
inable desolater, as it has been translated, 
standing in the holy place, is the sign of signs 
indicated by the Saviour. When that happens 
the end of the Age and His coming will be im¬ 
minent. 

Something of the meaning of “the Abomina¬ 
tion of Desolation standing in the holy place”, 
one might, without more, discover from the 
types supplied by Antiochus Epiphanes, and by 
the Eoman doings in A. D. 70. But quite ex¬ 
plicit information on this subject is given us, 
notably in the Second Epistle to the Thessalon- 
ians, where we learn that the world will not see 
“the Lord Jesus revealed from heaven” until 
there has first been revealed a personage de¬ 
scribed as:— 

“That man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and 
exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is wor¬ 
shipped—So that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple of God, 
shewing himself that he is God.” 


96 


THE LORD COMETH! 


A vivid portrait this, of him who is brought 
to our notice elsewhere, especially in Daniel and 
in Revelation. He is to become head of one of 
the nations and from that, and by rapid degrees, 
to grasp at and for a little while obtain predom¬ 
inant power in the world. 

Intoxicated by his own dazzling success, he 
will set himself up as a very god* and exact the 
worship of his fellows, until the nightmare of 
his regime shall be abruptly ended by the com¬ 
ing of the Lord, the truly Divine King of Kings. 
Nothing at all incredible in such a forecast! 

Some are already, as it were, rushing head¬ 
long to meet and to acclaim this false Shepherd. 
As it is prophesied, “I am come in my Father’s 
name and ye receive me not: another shall come 
in his own name, him ye will receive.” John 
5:43. 

The religion of humanity which some already 
put forth to supersede Christianity, can ob¬ 
viously lead to the worship of a Superman. 
There would be the apotheosis of humanity! 

The rendering of divine honours to a human 
ruler has strangely characterised human sys¬ 
tems of rule in times past. We read in Daniel’s 
history of the Gentile government of his own 
time, of the attempted substitution of man’s 
authority for God’s authority. The Roman 

* We are told that he will be aided and abetted by a so- 
called religious teacher, whom the Bible calls the false proph¬ 
et. 



THE LOKD COMETH! 


97 


Emperors too, claimed deification and worship. 
Their modern successor in world-power will do 
the same, the Bible tells us. In a spirit of 
rivalry, he will desire to anticipate the dual 
civil and religious authority of the coming 
Christ and he will claim to be the political and 
the spiritual saviour of the world. This claim 
will be admitted by those, who at that time, are 
still resisting the contention that only Jesus 
can suffice to set the world to rights. They will 
hail gladly a mere human being who professes 
that he, instead of Jesus, can do so. This Pre¬ 
tender, it is foretold, will have some command 
of occult power—“even him whose coming is 
after the working of Satan with all power and 
signs and lying wonders.’’ 

The mystery of iniquity so deepens and dark¬ 
ens in these times, that many are now regaining 
or acquiring a belief in Satan as a supernatural 
personf. “I beheld Satan as lightning fall 
from heaven”, said the Saviour, He whose go¬ 
ings forth are from everlasting. 

The existence of Satan is another of those 
disputed Scriptural affirmations which will be 
patently put to the test of human experience 
before the world is much older. 

“Ye know what witliholdeth that he the man 
of sin might be revealed in his time”, says the 

t It is being realised too with a new vividness that Satan 
(“the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan” 
as he is expressively termed) “fashioneth himself as an angel 
of light” that he may the more easily “get an advantage of 



98 


THE LORD COMETH! 


Apostle and goes on to indicate, in sufficiently 
clear terms, that the Spirit of God hinders, and 
will hinder the full manifestation of evil, until 
the due time. 

Then the Holy Spirit will be withdrawn, so 
that mankind shall learn to what dreadful 
plight the world is necessarily reduced when 
humanity has not God, but only itself to rely 
upon. 

That will be the sole possible teaching left for 
those who will not trust in “the grace of God 
which is given us by Jesus Christ”—“He who 
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteous¬ 
ness and sanctification and redemption. ’ ’ 

We who are fortunate enough already to have 
received all this that God offers us in Christ Je¬ 
sus, can claim no superiority of our own to 
those who have not yet received it. “Accord¬ 
ing as it is written: He that glorieth, let him 
glory in the Lord.’ ’ 

In fact, it is not until we have fully realized 
“the exceeding riches of God’s grace in His 
kindness to us through Christ Jesus” that we 
begin to realise also our own personal inade¬ 
quacy, imperfection and sinfulness, measured 
by the Divine standard. 

The more eternally grateful then must we of 
necessity be to God “Who hath delivered us 
from the power of darkness and hath translated 
us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom 


THE LORD COMETH! 


99 


we have redemption through His blood, even the 
forgiveness of sins.” 

We know, each one of us, that we should be in 
poor case if we had to stand on our own merits. 
Some of you who read this might have whereof 
to glory before mankind, but none of us have 
anything whereof to glory before God, because 
before Him “We are all as an unclean thing, 
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” 
They may pass muster in the dim light and by 
the imperfect standards of human judgment, 
but in the intensely pure light and by the sub¬ 
lime standards of the Divine, nothing but 
Divine righteousness can stand! However, by 
the grace of God—we may be clothed in the 
Divine righteousness of Christ through faith 
in Him. 

Prophecy is not meant to satisfy mere idle 
curiosity as to the future—it delivers this mes¬ 
sage, “Prepare to meet thy God”. To the un¬ 
prepared, the prophet’s words apply: “Woe 
unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To 
what end is it for you? The Day of the Lord is 
darkness and not light.” Amos 5:18. 

Prophecy warns of the “hour of trial which 
is to come upon all the whole world to try them 
that dwell upon the earth”, from which Jesus 
Christ who is the visible manifestation of God, 
*has promised to keep those who have faith in 
His word, do not deny His name, put their trust 
in Him. 




100 


THE LORD COMETH! 


Let ns therefore, instructed by the Signs of 
the Times, be found ready, not having our own 
righteousness, but the righteousness which we 
acquire through faith in Christ Jesus. 



CHAPTER II 

RESURRECTION AND TRANSLATION 


“I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour 
which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that 
dwell upon the earth.” Revelation 3:10. 


I 


N what manner will this promise of the 
risen Lord Jesus to His faithful ones be 
carried out f 

The answer to this question is founded in the 
super-natural. How futile it is to attempt to 
explain, or rather to explain away, on mere 
natural grounds, mysteries that are super¬ 
natural. 

On the other hand, we stray into dangerous 
territory if we reject the leading of that one 
reliable guide to the super-natural, the Bible. 

That the super-natural exists, many sceptics 
as to religion, are disposed to admit, because of 
the increasing evidence of its existence coming 
through certain psychic manifestations. 

But that is where the guidance of the Bible is 
indispensable. For the Bible not only reveals 
the righteousness of God, of Father, Son and 
Holy Spirit, but reveals also that evil is still 
present in the super-natural. Take for example 
this passage from the Sixth Chapter of Ephe¬ 
sians which, expressed in plain, modern Eng¬ 
lish, reads, 


Be strong in the Lord and in the power which His 
strength gives you. 

Put on the whole armour of God that you may be able 
to stand against the strategy of the Devil. 




102 


THE LORD COMETH! 


For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against 
the powers, against the forces, against the rulers of the 
darkness that is upon this world, against the spiritual 
hosts of wickedness in the super-natural realm. 

What a vivid presentment that is, of sin in 
the supernatural exploiting sin in human na¬ 
ture! 

On the Cross was fought and won the supreme 
battle against spiritual wickedness in the super¬ 
natural.—What the human spectators saw and 
heard of the suffering of the Redeemer was but 
a part of the whole. There was more in the 
crucifixion than met their eye. Most of it 
transpired in the unseen. 

There are no terrors, no dangers, no suffering 
comparable to supernatural terrors, dangers, 
suffering. Jesus dared and endured all that for 
us. His was no merely physical ordeal. Hence 
the unparalleled agony in the Garden, on the 
Cross! 

God has two modes of activity in the Uni¬ 
verse He has created, the natural and the super¬ 
natural modes. The miracles recorded in Scrip¬ 
ture illustrate the working of super-natural law, 
and in particular the resurrection of the Sa¬ 
viour. 

The days of miracles are not ended, as the 
world will shortly see! 

The second appearance of Jesus Christ, when 
He will, to borrow the prophet’s phrase, “rend 
the heavens and come down”, is an approach¬ 
ing miracle which will be more real than any of 


THE LORD COMETH! 


103 


those natural phenomena which we take for 
granted because we have witnessed them ah 
ready! 

But before that miracle of His coming, so 
that every eye shall see Him, there will occur 
that other most beautiful miracle of the return 
of Jesus to receive His own, who already ac¬ 
knowledge Him as Lord and Saviour. This will 
be the fulfilment of His pledge—I go to pre¬ 
pare a place for you and I will come again and 
receive you unto myself, that where I am there 
ye may be also. 

The promise to return to meet His own is 
conveyed also in the Acts of the Apostles 1:11, 
“This same Jesus, which is taken up from you 
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye 
have seen him go into heaven. ’ ’ 

Just as after the resurrection, “Him God 

.shewed openly; not to all the 

people, but unto witnesses chosen before of 
God,” (Acts 10:40,41.) so at His coming for 
His own, Jesus will not be seen by the world in 
general, but only by His own people. His vis¬ 
ible majestic appearance to all mankind will 
come afterward. 

Let us notice that the Apostles trusted un- 
doubtingly, looked forward joyfully to the 
second coming of their Lord to summon be¬ 
lievers to join Him, when their new and future 
service would begin. 



104 


THE LORD COMETH! 


The truth of the return of the Lord, St. Peter 
in his first Epistle declared when he wrote— 

The elders [of the Church] which are among you I ex¬ 
hort, who also am an elder and a witness of the sufferings 
of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be 
revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, tak¬ 
ing the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly, 
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as be¬ 
ing lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the 
flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye 
shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. 

1 Peter 5 :l-4. 

St. Paul repeatedly and from first to last 
testified that Jesus is coming a second time. 
Only a little while before his martyrdom, St. 
Paul wrote: 

“I have fought a good fight I have finished my course, 

I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the right¬ 
eous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only 
but to all them also that love His appearing.” 2 Timothy 
4:7,8. 

St. John, beloved of his Lord, was made the 
chief herald of His return. Paul and Peter and 
John and the rest died before their Lord had ap¬ 
peared. But that does not affect the truth that 
He will yet appear. The Apostles themselves 
knew that they might die before His coming, 
but they equally knew that He would return 
after their death, if not before it. 

The great promised gathering together with 
their Lord at His second Advent would in any 
case come to pass and in this manner: 

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 


THE LORD COMETH! 


105 


Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessa- 
lonians 4:16,17. 

Resurrection is the promise to the Apostles 
and all other believers who die before His re¬ 
turn. Translation is the promise to those be¬ 
lievers who are still alive when He returns. 

One can hardly pause to argue with those 
who at this day are still denying the Resur¬ 
rection of Jesus. No valid historical evidence 
has ever been adduced to disprove His Resur¬ 
rection. 

The Bible gives conclusive evidence that Je¬ 
sus rose from the dead and the historical state¬ 
ments in the Bible, though sometimes chal¬ 
lenged, have never yet been proved inaccurate. 
On the contrary, archeological research is con¬ 
tinually unearthing evidence of the truth of 
Biblical accounts of past history and further 
archeological confirmation is doubtless still to 
come. 

Everything, save human reluctance to believe 
what has not yet come within our actual ex¬ 
perience, concurs to prove the Resurrection. 

On what principle of God’s law Jesus rose 
from the dead we are told in the Acts of the 
Apostles by St. Peter speaking of His Lord, 
‘‘Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the 
pains of death because it was not possible that 
He should be holden of it.” 

Why not possible! Because by sin came death 


106 


THE LORD COMETH! 


and Jesus as the sinless One was therefore not 
susceptible of death. 

Indeed the more astounding miracle is not 
that Jesus rose from the dead, but that He, be¬ 
ing sinless, was able to accomplish His death, to 
remain even for a moment ‘ ‘ holden of death’ ’— 
“under the dominion of death.’’ That miracle 
might well have strained the Divine power to 
the uttermost! 

They saw Him after His resurrection. The 
women saw Him first. The Apostles saw Him, 
‘‘to whom also He shewed Himself alive after 
His passion by many infallible proofs, being 
seen of them forty days, and speaking of the 
things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.” 

He was seen ‘ ‘ of above five hundred brethren 
at once.” 

Paul, the until then unbelieving, resisting, re¬ 
jecting Saul, tells that after the Ascension, “He 
was seen of me also.” 

Christ is risen from the dead and become the 
first fruits of them that are asleep!—the Apos¬ 
tle’s cry of assurance rings through the cen¬ 
turies. The firstfruits of them that are asleep. 

He continues, “For as in Adam all die, even 
so in Christ shall all be made alive. But everv 
man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; 
afterward they that are Christ’s at His com¬ 
ing. ’ ’ I Corinthians 15:22, 23. 

So all who have faith, who trust in Jesus, who 
look to Him, which means accept of Him His 


THE LORD COMETH! 


107 


proffered gift of eternal life which He obtained 
for them by His own death on the Cross, will, 
“at His coming” be in the likeness of His resur¬ 
rection—They will form a harvest of which He 
is already the firstfruits. 

Now if the thought of the resurrection of the 
dead seems strange to some, the translation of 
the living, so that they shall not see death, 
seems even stranger. But why! At this very 
time there are some people who believe that 
human beings by the development and exercise 
of mere innate human power can perform ex¬ 
traordinary super-physical feats or can pro¬ 
cure the materialisation of spirits, and so on. 

The Bible, however, makes no claim that any 
human power can effect the miracle of the resur¬ 
rection of the dead, or the translation of the 
living. What it says is that Divine power can 
perform this miracle. 

The translation of believers will not be a 
psychic phenomenon: It will be the Divine 
creative act of the Spirit of God. The promise 
of this has been given; performance will follow. 

There are more things in God’s plan than are 
dreamed of in the philosophy of scoffers. “Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it 
entered into the heart of man the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love Him.” 

In the light of so much wondrous accomplish¬ 
ment of prophecy it all the more behooves us to 
believe, as did the patriarch, who “staggered 


108 


THE LORD COMETH! 


not in unbelief but was strong in faith giving 
glory to God and being fully persuaded that 
what He had promised He was able also to per¬ 
form 

In that wondrous Epistle to the Hebrews 
whose opening words are majestic, triumphal 
music, we have this same prompting to faith in 
verses five and six of Chapter Eleven. 

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see 
death; and was not found, because God had translated 
him: for before his translation he had this testimony, 
that he pleased God. 

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he 
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he 
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 
11:5, 6. 

When upon their resurrection or translation, 
as the case may be, believers meet their Lord, 
with what body will they come? In that re¬ 
deemed body which the Apostle in the Eighth 
Chapter of Romans tells us he is waiting and 
longing for! It will, as we read (1 Corinthians 
15) be an incorruptible and an immortal body. 

The redemption of the believer through faith 
in his Redeemer, whereby he becomes a new 
creation, will extend even to the redemption of 
the body, when the Redeemer comes again. 

That is why: “we look for the Saviour, the 
Lord Jesus Christ who shall change this body 
of humiliation that it may be fashioned like 
unto His glorious body according to the power 
whereby He is able to subdue all things unto 
Himself . 9 9 


CHAPTER III 

“EVEN SO COME LORD JESUS!” 

“Behold He cometh. with clouds and every eye shall see 
Him and they also which pierced Him and all the nations 
of the earth shall mourn because of Him.” Rev. 1:7. 

W r— " ELL may there be mourning when the 
many of all nations who have rejected 
__ Him shall see the crucified One returning, 
bearing the marks of His truth and of His sac¬ 
rifice ! 

How emphatically Jesus has insisted and re¬ 
peated that His coming will be visible to man¬ 
kind here on earth! 

“As the lightning that lighteneth out of the 
one part under heaven shineth unto the other 
part under heaven, so shall the Son of man be 
in His day. But first must He suffer many 
things, and be rejected of this generation. ’ ’ The 
time is near, though the sceptics will be quite 
unexpectant of it, “when the Son of man is re¬ 
vealed. 

That very title “Son of man” which He asso¬ 
ciates with the prophecy of His return, is in it¬ 
self the assertion that He as the God-man will 
appear in bodily form to the bodily eyes of the 
dwellers on earth, as visibly as He did in the 
by-gone day when also as the Son of man He 
suffered and was rejected. The only difference 
will be that this time He will appear glorified 




.110 


THE LORD COMETH i 


and with such power that the world cannot re¬ 
ject Him, even if it would. 

The Bible has much to tell of the time that 
immediately precedes His coming, of the man¬ 
ner of His coming and of the consequences of 
His coming. All should make their own re¬ 
searches into these mighty prophecies. 

The kingdoms of this world are not yet the 
kingdoms of Christ. Whatever some may say, 
He does not yet rule over the earth. His reign 
as foredestined Prince of this world has not yet 
begun, just as David’s reign, after he was 
anointed as King, did not at once begin. Jesus 
said before His betrayal and death: “The 
Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in 
me” and again, speaking prospectively of the 
crucifixion, “the Prince of this world is 
judged. ’ ’ 

Judged, Yes! But judgment upon the Prince 
of this world has still to be executed, as it will 
be when, but not until, this Age ends and Jesus, 
the Prince of the regenerated world returns to 
reign. 

When both human and super-natural resist¬ 
ance to His reign is overcome, as it will be in 
the Age-end crisis, the Millennium, the new 
and golden Age, so long foreseen, can begin. 

God’s Kingdom upon earth, prayed for count¬ 
less times, will at last have come. 

Wonderfully different the new Kingdom will 
be from the present Age and all its works. That 


THE LOKD COMETH I 


111 


we may know from the Sermon on the Mount, 
which gives the basic principles of the Divine 
Kingdom on the earth as ruled by its coming 
Divine King. 

The joys and blessings of the millennial 
reign of the Son of man are beautifully prefig¬ 
ured in the Bible. Concerning the King Him¬ 
self we read— 

Behold the days come saith the Lord when I 
will raise up to David a righteous branch and a 
King shall reign and prosper and shall execute 
judgment and justice in all the earth—and this 
is the name wherewith He shall be called: THE 
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

World peace, which will be established by 
and only by the Prince of Peace is foretold 
thus: 

“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the 
mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in 
the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above 
the hills; and people shall flow unto it. 

And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let 
us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of 
the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and 
we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of 
Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 

And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke 
strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords 
into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: na¬ 
tion shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more.” Micah 4:1,2, 3. 

The very brute creation will abate its fierce 
“struggle for existence” judging by the Elev¬ 
enth chapter of Isaiah. 

The Psalms are richly jewelled with inspired 



112 


THE LORD COMETH! 


glimpses of the reign of earth’s future Divine 
King, for example: 

“The King of glory shall come in” 

4 4 Say among the nations that the Lord reign - 
eth. The world also shall be established that it 
shall not be moved. He shall judge the people 
righteously”. Psalm 96:10. 

‘ 1 When the Lord shall build up Zion He shall 
appear in His Glory.” Psalm 102:16. 

“The Stone which the builders refused is be¬ 
come the headstone of the corner.” Psalm 118: 
22 . 

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised 
in the City of our God in the mountain of His 
holiness. 

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole 
earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, 
the city of the great King.” Psalm 48:1,2. 

Some people are puzzled by the prophesied 
Kingly relation to this earth of Jesus, in Whom 
dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 
“by Whom and for Whom were all things cre¬ 
ated that are in heaven and that are in earth, 
visible and invisible, Who is before all things 
and by Him all things consist.” In short, they 
do not understand that He whom God has ap¬ 
pointed centre of the Universe should reign 
over this earth in particular. But to question 
this is to put our own imaginary limit to Di¬ 
vine Omnipotence and Omnipresence. Why, 
even a human being plays many concurrent 


THE LORD COMETH! 


113 


parts, sustains many relationships at one and 
the same time! 

The Bible says that Jesus will come and will 
reign, and things announced in the Bible al¬ 
ways have happened and always will happen, 
however incredible they may seem in advance; 
as we read, ‘ 1 1 have declared the former things 
from the beginning . . . and they came to pass. 
Isaiah 48:3. 

What is more; the things God declares in ad¬ 
vance happen precisely in the manner in which 
He says they will—not in some other manner of 
human invention. In this absolutely literal 
way, every prophecy concerning our Redeemer 
has been fulfilled up to date. The remaining 
prophecies will also be literally fulfilled. 

The promise of the Bible to those who travel 
by way of the Cross is that 4 ‘Jesus Christ, the 
faithful witness and the firstborn from among 
the dead and the ruler of the Kings of the earth, 
who “loveth us and loosed us from our sins bv 
His own blood”, has “made us to be a kingdom, 
to be priests unto His God and Father.” 

The fulness of the privilege of service this 
promise may involve we cannot wholly know 
until He comes, “for now we see through a 
glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I 
know in part, but then shall I know even as I 
am known.” 

Meanwhile, we have there another aspect of 
the wonder of the Cross. 


114 


THE LORE COMETH! 


Certainly Jesns spake as never man spake, 
but it is by the Cross and His death upon the 
Cross that He is marked out from all others. 

“He who knew no sin was made sin for us 
that we might become the righteousness of God 
in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21. 

By a strange mistake it has been argued in 
support of other religions that they are pre- 
Christian. But that is to attempt to apply our 
limited human concept of time to the super-nat¬ 
ural. 

The Cross radiates in all directions, if we 
may so express it—radiates backward as well 
as forward. 

In the super-natural, where religions origi¬ 
nate, the Cross was for ever foreknown, as it 
will be remembered through eternity. Far from 
Christianity being an imitation, or adaptation 
of other religions, it is other religions that are 
fragmentary imitations and adaptations of 
Christianity. But they all leave out the essen¬ 
tial truth of the Son of God dying to make 
atonement for ungodly and sinful humanity. 
They all leave out the Cross! 

Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega, the begin¬ 
ning and the end the first and the last. His go¬ 
ings forth are from everlasting. He was loved 
of the Father, had glory with God before the 
world was. He is the foreordained Redeemer 
whose crucifixion was known from all time. He 
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 


<0 B 16 1 




THE LORD COMETH! 


115 


world. We read that in heaven there will be 
sung this new song: 

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power 
and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and 
glory and blessing” Revelation 5:12. 

Earth, too, will soon take up this song, for 
here is God’s plan for the world, in its most 
beantifnl expression:—Christ Jesns, being in 
the form of God and the equal of God, neverthe¬ 
less, humbled Himself, took on the form of a 
man, of a servant, and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the Cross—wherefore 
God has highly exalted Him and has decreed 
that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow 
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord to the Glory of God the Father. 

Very far is humanity from this unanimous 
acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord. That will 
not come until He appears, to put doubt to flight 
and manifest Himself visibly as the once cruci¬ 
fied and now crowned Redeemer. 

Yes, He is coming. History is now rushing, 
racing on to the fulfilment of the great proph¬ 
ecy. 

The Bible’s final message is from Him. 

Behold I come quickly. 

Surely I come quickly. 

We who love His appearing, make the Apos¬ 
tles ’ prayer our own—EVEN SO COME, LORI) 
JESUS. 
















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